Comments on: What really happened on Northwest Airlines Flight 188?

By: John Mall

John Mall — Thu, 20 May 2010 06:18:38 +0000

Both pilots should admit they were having sex :-)

By: Pilot T

Pilot T — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:55:14 +0000

Please tell me you did some actual fact finding on this ‘email from a friend’ BS… the source of which has NEVER been found. As a pilot, They were sleeping or web surfing with the volume turned down on the radio.

Both of which earn you a big time out

By: MikeZ

MikeZ — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:43:18 +0000

@MCGJr:
Chill. I doubt you were there, either. But it has already been clearly established that the crew failed to maintain radio contact for more than an hour. (The FAA has published the transcripts of the various ATC attempts to reach them.) Like it or not, it’s an egregious violation of all the rules in the book and especially nerve-wracking in this age of terrorism, etc.

Also, the Wall Street Journal now reports that the pilots are starting to point fingers at each other as being responsible for the situation.

Yes, time will tell what the final resolution is, and I agree that the facts must be weighed carefully in closing the books on this. But let’s understand that the reactions you decry are a logical response to the fear that many have that this incident — even if isolated — reflects safety issues that none of us wants to encounter when we fly. Or when anyone flies.

By: MCGJr.

MCGJr. — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:41:28 +0000

To ‘dmc’ and all the rest of you who are so sure about what was going on:
You all sound like Obama when he said, “I have no facts, but the police acted stupidly.”

‘dmc’ – Were you there? Did you and your friends have some cameras hidden in the cockpit so you could see what was going on?

At this point, I fault the FAA and other authorities who are involved for not providing the FACTS about what happened. It has been long enough to analyze all the communications that DID take place and verify the situation as described in the E-Mail. Without FACTS, I am reserving judgement.

BTW, I am not a pilot. I have no connection with any airline or travel association. I am simply a traveler who has over a million miles on Delta and am very comfortable whenever I step on their planes. And, until proven otherwise by FACTS, as is our country’s system, I accept that the flight crew is innocent until proven otherwise. So far, I’ve seen no proof. I’ve only heard a lot of ranting from people who have no direct knowledge of what happened, many who have ulterior motives for bashing the airlines, their crews, and/or the travel industry in general. Actually, my thanks go to Consumer Traveler for at least attempting to provide the pilot’s side of the story in the absence of disclosure by those who have the real responsibility to let the pubic know what happened.

By: Paulette Baker

Paulette Baker — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:33:39 +0000

Bill: You birds really do flock together don’t you! Yes, I’ve F#@*ed up. The difference was that I wasn’t responsible for a bunch of other people’s lives when I did it. It’s real nice that Cheney’s church and neighbors support him, but that’s totally irrelevant to the case. Nice guys do bad things too.

By: MikeZ

MikeZ — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:37:42 +0000

I’m glad their neighbors and church members support them. I wonder if the passengers aboard that flight feel the same way.

Had these two guys been upfront and immediately explained what happened, this might have resulted in less-severe penalties. But their second-biggest mistake was to hide behind their lawyers and refuse to answer any questions for several days, instead of coming right out with (what they claim are) the facts. Instead, any reasonable person would conclude they used the time to coordinate their stories and hone the details. As it is, revocation or not, there are so many versions and sub-versions of this entire story that no airline in its right mind would want to hire these guys.

Flight crews earn big bucks because they shoulder tremendous responsibility, and in this case, they abdicated it. There are cardinal rules (no pun intended for their churches) that these guys violated. In aviation, one swing-and-a-miss and you’re out — lest the entire plane and its passengers be called out.

PS: An after-thought: Would these two guys be willing to take polygraph examinations? Granted, they’re not 100-percent accurate but, in this case, using them might help ascertain just what happened.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:17:59 +0000

I think the punishment – including the loss of license, jobs and the ability to get another one was unduly harsh, premature (action taken before investigation complete), and a knee jerk reaction to the media outrage of the day.
I am a captain for a major international airline. I have flown Airbuses. Their story is mostly plausible. The only part I doubt is the accuracy of the 5 minutes on the laptop (it may have SEEMed like 5 minutes, but you know what a time suck-hole a computer can be).
I don’t think safety was actually compromised.
It’s soooo easy to say they should “pay the price.” Have you ever F#@*ed up? Do you think your life should have been ruined by it?

By: Biff Jones

Biff Jones — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:25:03 +0000

I am not a pilot but I did spent 8 years working on F-15s in the Air Force and I have flown over 500,000 miles commercially. I have mixed feelings about the contents of this letter.
I believe it is possible to be on the wrong frequency and maybe they did miss the ACARS light. But a few things do bother me:
1. Pilots file flight plans. They take into consideration such things as flight times, ground traffic, weather and tail winds. The would have calculated an approximate landing time before they ever left the ground and they would have updated it in flight.
2. How can you possibly pull out a stowed laptop, fire it up, sign on and get into their scheduling system, do what you need to do, shut it off and stow it away in less then 5 minutes?
3. They can’t read their on board map?

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:51:32 +0000

The bottom line is they overshot their destination AND no one could get in touch with them. I find that troubling. The fact that his church supports him is of no consequence. We do not have churches running our ATC.

By: David Z

David Z — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:12:33 +0000

Whatever eventually results out of this, good luck to the currently ex-pilots.